Tightrope walk towards energy security

India's rising coal production and consumption is clear indication that it will continue to dominate the country's energy mix, growth, and targets of renewable energy, notwithstanding. The government facilitating expansion of coal production through relaxation in environmental norms are going to ensure the required policy regimes. This leaves room for doubt if the country achieving its goal of generating 500 gigawatts of renewable energy will help it achieve the other committed goal of 50% of energy mix being clean energy by 2030. Information furnished by the government in the Rajya Sabha show that during the first quarter of 2022-23 (April-June), the receipt of domestic coal at the power plants has increased to 189 MT from 158.9 MT during the same period last year, registering a growth of about 19%. Besides, against the consumption of about 204.3 MT during this period, the total coal receipt was 205.5 MT. The coal stock available at the power plants monitored on daily basis by the Central Electricity Authority increased from 25.6 MT as on March 31 to 29.5 MT as on July 26 pointing towards the rise in production. The jump in requirement of domestic coal follows from increase in Annual Contracted Quantity of power plants to 100% from normative requirement of 90% in non-coastal power plants and 70% in coastal power plants. More than 80% of the production is attributed to Coal India Limited (CIL) which dispatched a record quantity of 152.49 MT coal to Power Sector against 127.94 MT during the same period last year, registering a growth of 19.2%. Along with increase in domestic production, import of coal also increased from 11.2 MT in in 2020-21 to 16.5 in the current year. The government's position that coal being an affordable source of energy with substantial reserve, is going to stay as a major source of energy in the foreseeable future explains the simultaneous rise in both domestic production and import. In the current energy mix, fossil fuel accounts for 58.5% with coal alone accounting for 50.7%, renewables including hydropower, solar, wind, bio mass etc. account for 39.7% and nuclear accounts for about 1.7%. The government says that the country will require base load capacity of coal-based generation for stability and for energy security and refers to the projection in draft Economic Survey 2021-22 that coal demand will rise in the range of 1.3 – 1.5 billion tonnes by 2030. The CIL setting the target of increasing annual production from the current level of 600 MT to one billion tonnes indicates that the onus to enhance domestic production has been put on the state-controlled mining company. One of the key steps initiated by the government to enhance domestic coal production, which will have ramification on environment as well as India's net zero emissions target, is allowing expansion of coal mine without public consultation up to 50% of their production capacity. The Ministry of Coal requested the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) for relaxing the requirement of public consultation and preparation of Environment Impact Assessment or Environment Management Plan for expansion of existing coal blocks from 40% to 50%, for enhancement of production of coal without delay. The MoEFCC issued an Office Memorandum on May 7 granting 10 environmental clearances to coal mining projects in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh which will result in additional capacity of 9.65 million tonnes per annum. Loss of pristine forest and biodiversity, rampant and illegal coal mining in Dehing Patkai elephant reserve in Assam sounded the alarm bell that indiscriminate extraction of fossil fuel would only aggravate the climate change impact. The system of public consultation, EIA/EMP acts as checks and balance against over exploitation of natural resources and doing away with this will amount to removing the safety valve in forest and environment conservation. Among 19 coal blocks identified for regional exploration, 12 are located in the northeast region-three in Assam, two each in Nagaland, Mizoram, four in Arunachal Pradesh and one in Meghalaya. The relaxation allowed by the MoEFCC for expansion of coal production without public consultation, EIA/EMP has not exempted the northeast region from the purview of this policy shift, and this is bound to give rise to apprehension of adverse impact on environment in the northeast. Recent climate extreme event like large excess rains resulting in unprecedented flooding followed by departure from normal rainfall when farmers needed rain most and widespread incidents of massive landslides call for government holding consultation with environment experts before pushing such relaxations in this biodiversity hotspot. The country achieving self-reliance is critical to ensure its energy security. The conservation of biodiversity in a region like the northeast, on the other hand, is critical to the country staying on its course along net-zero emissions path. The government is walking a tightrope rope towards meeting its goal of energy security.